Wander Through Mirkwood With Me
by Jo'sBitch
Summary: Thorin and company meet a special someone on the way to Erebor.
1. Chapter 1

Joy say by the Carrock, her feet in the icy water. She was supposed to be tending to the bees by her fathers house but they didnt need much tending and she would much rather sit and dream by the water. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a long braid and tied at the end with spider silk. She frowned and ran her hands down her white woollen dress and sighed deeply, she wanted an adventure but her father forbade it and Beorn was not a man you defied lightly.

She leant back on her elbows and looked up at the sky, in the distance she could see smoke rising, that wasnt so unusual the Orcs were always burning things. She sighed and thought of the forest, she loved exploring the forest even though she wasnt supposed to. The spiders liked to braid her hair and she liked to climb the trees, she wasnt like her father at all she had light green eyes and light blonde hair. Her father had dark eyes and wild black hair, the other obvious difference was their height, Beorn towered over everyone where as she barely came up to his waist. She wasnt convinced that he was her real father but then he had raised her and she had never known another father.

She frowned at the sky, dark spots flying towards her. They were still some distance away so she had time to run if she needed to. She stood up on the bank and took a few steps backwards towards the tree line, Joy was a very quick runner and if she didnt want to get caught she rarely would... except her father, he could always catch her.

The dark spots came closer, growing in size. She could now see that they were birds, not just birds but eagles. She ran and hid behind a tree watching carefully as the eagles landed on the Carrock and dropped of their passengers before taking flight again. She spotted the wizard first and smiled, wondering if he was friends with Radagast the Brown who was a good friend of hers. With the wizard was a tiny little man with curly brown hair and hairy feet, she had never seen someone so small before she was quite pleased feeling tall for the first time in her life. Tearing her eyes away from the tiny man, she looked over the other men with the wizard and on closer inspection they wernt men at all but dwarves. She had heard her father describe dwarves to her before, telling her tales of the Silmarils and the skill of their crafts.

She eyed each of the dwarves in turn, the first one she spotted had his hair in three pointy sections and his beard parted in three sections too, he had gingery hair and carried an odd looking staff. The next one was young and kind of goofy looking with only a small beard plaited in places. Next to him stood a really fat dwarf with his long hair tied as a plait across his stomach... it looked quite silly if she was honest. Then she spotted the dwarf next to him, he was quite old looking with light grey hair and a small neat beard. Behind him were two dwarves talking animatedly to each other, one was blonde with long hair and two braids in his short beard. The one he was taking to seemed younger than him, he had long black hair with a short stubbly beard. She couldnt believe how many dwarves there were! One of them had long grey hair, his beard was plaited in two places which curled up almost into circles. Another of them had ginger hair and a long bushy beard which was decorated with silver bands in places. And there were still five of them she had yet to look at, as she looked she saw one dwarf with black and grey hair with a long elaborate beard, another that was tall and bald with a long black beard with grey streaks in it. One had white hair and a long white beard, parted in two sections and the last one she could see properly had brown hair in two plaits and a long moustache with a short, trimmed beard. The last dwarf had his back to her but from what she could see he had long brown hair and wore well made and fitted armour, he turned and she caught her breath as her eyes roamed over his face. His long hair was braided in places and his brown beard was trimmed neatly and was full and thick, but it was his eyes that caught her attention they were steely grey with sparks of blue which glimmered like sapphires.

She shook herself and frowned, she needed to get home or at least find a better hiding place, unfortunately there was nowhere for her to move without being spotted. The tree she was hiding behind was barely more than a sapling, she was lucky she was so small... though a few of the dwarves would tower over her. She looked around slowly, hoping for something to disappear behind, no such luck the tree was a good hundred meters away from the main tree line. She could try and run for it but she knew that if the wizard wanted her to stop running there would be nothing she could do. They didnt look like a threat but she didnt want to take any risks. She decided to stay put and stay out of their line of sight, watching where they would go. Once they had past her she could move freely, she chewed her lip as she waited for them to move, they seemed to be discussing which route they would take.

She crouched down low as they made their way across the Carrock and towards her hiding place, she shivered and tried to stay hidden from view. They seemed to be heading towards her fathers house and she hoped they didnt want to hurt them. Suddenly the wizard stopped and turned around, the group around him stopped too and watched him as he gazed at the tree she was hiding behind.

"I know you are there. Come out or we will drag you out." The wizard had a strong commanding voice and she trembled slightly, she was out numbered and had nowhere to escape to.


	2. Chapter 2

Joy sighed and slowly stepped out from behind the tree and fifteen pairs of eyes turned to her, followed quickly with thirteen weapons. The wizard alone stood relaxed, clearly not seeing her as a threat. "My how you've grown... "

Joys eyes widened in surprise and the wizards companions turned to look at him, the bald headed dwarf frowned at him "You know this girl Gandalf?"

"Indeed i do Mr Dwalin, though its been a very long time since last i saw her... in fact she was only a baby. Myself and my company here are on our way to see your father Joy, please come with us."

Joy looked at them and frowned "He doesn't like guests... and i don't remember you at all."

"My name is Gandalf the Grey, and this is Thorin Oakenshield, Balin, Ori, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Fili, Kili, Gloin, Dwalin, Oin, Dori and Bilbo baggins of the Shire." He had pointed to each in turn and she smiled shyly.

"Its nice to meet you all, I'm Joy... but you can all call me Jo... I'm not a joyful person really." She edged around them and started heading to her fathers house, she turned to Gandalf who was walking beside her. "Are you friends with Radagast the Brown?"

He smiled down at her "That i am, i take it you are friends with him also?"

"As much as i can be without being an animal or a shrub." Smiles at him as he laughs. "By the way, you aren't planning on all barging in at once are you?"

Gandalf stroked his beard as he thought, Thorin huffed "Of course we are, we don't have time to waste."

"It's not a good idea, my father is not a patient man..." She eyed Thorin, noting that he had still not put his sword away. She glanced around and noted that all of the dwarves still had their weapons out. "I'm not a threat to you, you can put your weapons away."

He narrowed his eyes at her and held onto his weapons "How do i know that?"

"Because im unarmed...?" He was very handsome but also quite intimidating, she hoped he wouldn't see her as a threat.

No such luck, he grabbed her arm and forced her up against the closest tree, before she knew what was happening Thorin had her pinned between him and the tree with his sword at her throat. Her eyes went wide and she looked at him in shock as he leant forward and growled at her. "I don't trust people i have just met, i don't care that you are a woman you could still betray us."

Gandalf scowled and tapped Thorin on the shoulder with his staff "Do you really think i would invite a traitor to accompany us?! Release her and act like the king you are supposed to be!"

Thorin frowned and backed off "I trust you Gandalf... but i don't trust her, not yet."

Joy hated to admit it but she had liked being pressed up against him... perhaps not with the blade to her throat but his strong body pressed flush against hers had been quite exciting. "As... as i was saying, my father is not a patient man and seeing all of you at once might just push him too far... if you told him a story and interrupt every now and then with a couple at a time of your company you might be able to hold his attention long enough for him to welcome you... maybe..."

Gandalf stroked his beard and nodded "Leave that to me."

As they walked Joy couldn't stop her mind from wandering back to the time spent pressed against Thorin, it had only been moments but it seemed in her mind to stretch for hours. While walking with them she felt eyes on her at all times from both Thorin and Dwalin but the others chatted happily remarking about her fathers bees once they had reached the hive field where she was supposed to have been. She stopped walking and sighed "Go on ahead i have duties to do out here, i will see you when its supper time."

"What duties do you have to attend to?" Thorin was watching her obviously suspicious as to why she wasn't going any further.

She gestures to the hives "I have to tend to the bees and collect some honey, boring work but its my chore for the day."

Thorin was about to say something but Gandalf interrupted "We will see you later then." The company eye her as they leave the field and approach the high hedges surrounding her fathers house, warg and orc heads on pikes at the entrance to the gate. It would be her job in a few weeks to take those rotting things down and bury them on the borders of her fathers lands, a job she hated.

After several hours of tending to the bees, she carried a bucket of honey home with her. As she walked into the garden she saw the company talking with her father who was listening intently, sat in his chair on the porch. Her father was an impressive man, tall and broad with wild black hair and a thick black beard. Compared to the company he looked like a giant of a man, though she always thought that. She had stopped growing and just about past his waist. He wasn't her real father, she couldn't remember her real parents but he had brought her in and raised her as if she were his own blood. She loved her father very much and always did her best to be a good daughter.

The sun was setting behind the misty mountains before she heard her fathers deep booming voice "A very good tale! The best I have heard for a long while. If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder. You may be making it all up, of course, but you deserve a supper for the story all the same. Let's have something to eat! Joy! Come and help with supper!"


	3. Chapter 3

Im cheating in this chapter, if you can tell how you get a cookie!

* * *

Inside the hall it was now quite dark. Beorn clapped his hands, and in trotted four beautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs. Her father said something to them in a language he had yet to teach her. They went out again and soon came back carrying torches in their mouths, which they lit at the fire and stuck in low brackets on the pillars of the hall about the central hearth making the hall more homely.

The dogs could stand on their hind-legs when they wished, and carry things with their fore-feet. Quickly they got out boards and trestles from the side walls and set them up near the fire.

Then in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle tables. These were very low, low enough even for Bilbo the hobbit to sit at comfortably. Beside them a pony pushed two low-seated benches with wide rush-bottoms and little short thick legs for Gandalf and Thorin, while at the far end he put her father's big black chair of the same sort. These were all the chairs he had in his hall, and he had them low like the tables for the convenience of the animals that waited on him. The other ponies came in rolling round drum-shaped sections of logs, smoothed and polished, and low enough even for the hobbit; so soon they were all seated at her father's table as Joy served them, the hall had not seen such a gathering for many a year and Joy was enjoying the company.

Joy didn't eat much the light of the torches and the fire flickered about them, making Thorin's eyes almost glow as he gazed at her across the table. All the time they ate, Beorn in his deep rolling voice told tales of the wild lands on this side of the mountains, and especially of the dark and dangerous wood, that lay outstretched far to North and South a day's ride before them, barring their way to the East, the terrible forest of Mirkwood.

When dinner was over the dwarves began to tell tales of their own, but her father seemed to be growing drowsy and paid little heed to them. They spoke most of gold and silver and jewels and the making of things by smith-craft, and she knew her father did not care for such things: there were no things of gold or silver in his hall, and few save the knives were made of metal at all, but Joy was fascinated to hear all they had to say. They sat long at the table with their wooden drinking-bowls filled with mead though Joy didnt drink much she didnt want to fall asleep before the others. The dark night came on outside. The fires in the middle of the hall were built with fresh logs and the torches were put out, and still they sat in the light of the dancing flames with the pillars of the house standing tall behind them, arid dark at the top like trees of the forest.

The great door creaked and slammed. Her father was gone. The dwarves were sitting cross-legged on the floor round the fire, and presently they began to sing. Some of the verses were like this, but there were many more, and their singing went on for a long while:  
"The wind was on the withered heath,but in the forest stirred no leaf: there shadows lay by night and day, and dark things silent crept beneath. The wind came down from mountains cold, and like a tide it roared and rolled; the branches groaned, the forest moaned, and leaves were laid upon the mould. The wind went on from West to East ; all movement in the forest ceased, but shrill and harsh across the marsh its whistling voices were released. The grasses hissed, their tassels bent, the reeds were rattling-on it went o' er shaken pool under heavens cool where racing clouds were torn and rent. It passed the lonely Mountain bare and swept above the dragon's lair : there black and dark lay boulders stark and flying smoke was in the air. It left the world and took its flight over the wide seas of the night. The moon set sail upon the gale, and stars were fanned to leaping light."

Joy listened intently, picturing everything in her mind. Suddenly up stood Gandalf. "It is time for us to sleep," be said, "-for us, but not I think for Beorn. In this hall we can rest sound and safe, but I warn you: you must not stray outside until the sun is up, on your peril." Joy had already laid the beds at the side of the hall, on a sort of raised platform between the pillars and the outer wall. the dwarves and Gandalf were all asleep, to judge by their breathing; a splash of white on the floor came from the high moon, which was peering down through the smoke-hole in the roof, which the little hobbit was looking up at as he lay awake.

There was a growling sound outside, and a noise as of some great animal scuffling at the door. It was probably just her father but she knew better than to answer it, the hobbit seemed afraid and covered himself over with the blankets. She walked to her room silently and took out the only thing her father had found with her, a round gold brooch with runes stamped into it and a large ruby in the centre. She stroked her fingers over it and chewed her lip as she contemplated asking one of the dwarves what it said.

It was full morning when she awoke, she got up and fixed breakfast for their hungry guests. One of the dwarves had fallen over the hobbit in the shadows where he lay, and had rolled down with a bump from the platform on to the floor. It was Bofur, and he was grumbling about it, when Bilbo opened his eyes. Joy saw to Bofur and made sure he had a little extra for breakfast to make him feel better.

"Get up lazybones," he said, "or there will be no breakfast left for you."

Up jumped Bilbo. "Breakfast!" he cried. "Where is breakfast?" "Mostly inside us," answered the other dwarves who were moving around the hall; "but what is left is out on the veranda where Joy left it. We have been about looking for Beorn ever since the sun got up; but there is no sign of him anywhere." Joy just smiled, she was used to having her father wander off, not that this pleased the dwarves.

"Where is Gandalf?" asked Bilbo, moving off to find something to eat as quick as he could.

"O! out and about somewhere," they told him. But they saw no sign of the wizard all that day until the evening. Just before sunset he walked into the hall, where the hobbit and the dwarves were having supper, Joy had made them a stew. Of her father they had seen and heard nothing since the night before, and they were getting puzzled. "Where is our host, and where have you been all day yourself?" the company all cried.

"One question at a time-and none till after supper! I haven't had a bite since breakfast."

At last Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug - he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of mead, Joy was relieved he had stopped eating as the dwarves looked ready to explode, he took out his pipe and they turned in unison to watch him. "I will answer the second question first," he said, "-but bless me! this is a splendid place for smoke rings!" For a long time the company could get nothing more out of him, he was so busy sending smoke-rings dodging round the pillars of the hall, changing them into all sorts of different shapes and colours, and setting them at last chasing one another out of the hole in the roof. Joy was very amused she had never seen smoke rings before as her father didnt smoke.

They must have looked very strange from the outside, popping out into the air one after another, green, blue, red, silver-grey, yellow, white; big ones, little ones; little ones dodging through big ones and joining into figure-eights, and going off like a flock of birds into the distance. "I have been picking out bear-tracks," he said at last. "There must have been a regular bears' meeting outside here last night. I soon saw that Beorn could not have made them all: there were far too many of them, and they were of various sizes too. I should say there were little bears, large bears, ordinary bears, and gigantic big bears, all dancing outside from dark to nearly dawn. They came from almost every direction, except from the west over the river, from the Mountains. In that direction only one set of footprints led-none coming, only ones going away from here.

I followed these as far as the Carrock. There they disappeared into the river, but the water was too deep and strong beyond the rock for me to cross. It is easy enough, as you remember, to get from this bank to the Carrock by the ford, but on the other side is a cliff standing up from a swirling channel. I had to walk miles before I found a place where the river was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back again to pick up the tracks again. By that time it was too late for me to follow them far. They went straight off in the direction of the pine-woods on the east side of the Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the Wargs the night before last. And now I think I have answered your first question, too," ended Gandalf, and he sat a long while silent. Joy had been trying not to listen in but Gandalfs voice simply bounced off of the walls.

"What shall we do," Bilbo cried, she knew it was Bilbo as the little fellow had a higher voice than the others, "if he leads all the Wargs and the goblins down here? We shall all be caught and killed! I thought you said he was not a friend of theirs."

"So I did" replied Gandalf. "And don't be silly! You had better go to bed, your wits are sleepy."

Joy returned to the hall and sat with Balin who seemed one of the kindest of the dwarves, she chewed her lip as she fiddled with her brooch. "Something on your mind Lass?"

Joy looked at him and nodded "I have this..." here she held her brooch out to him and Balin took it curiously, Thorin looking over at them curiously

Balin looked at her wide eyed and serious "Where did you get this?"


End file.
